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Eric R

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Everything posted by Eric R

  1. Eric R
    There are some sellers that do multiday shipping with live arrival guarantees. I’ve done overnight shipping plenty of times with lots of success. No experience with shipping multiday though. Has anyone here received fish shipped multiday overnight? If so, how did it go? Not asking for feedback on when a delivery was delayed by the shipper or lost, but when an intentional 3 or 4 day delivery arrived on time, and whether any fish were lost or not. Thanks!
  2. Eric R
    The manual says the pump is rated to run at 110 - 180 mbar, equivalent to 1.6-2.6 psi. Pretty sure we're more than fine, especially since noone has chimed in with having had a failure issue of this nature with this kind of pump. Remind me to never teach in NJ. I don't think I'll have any issues here.
  3. Eric R
    @Chris, how's the saltwater tank doing?
  4. Eric R
    @drewzero1, how's the saltwater tank coming along?
  5. Eric R
    Thanks for the replies. I realize I accidentally wrote "After researching alternatives, it really seems to me like ABS is the easiest and most affordable option" when I meant to write "After researching alternatives, it really seems to me like PVC is the easiest and most affordable option" I feel pretty comfortable using PVC, I just wanted to ask a group of experienced aquarists to see if anyone had ever even heard of a problem happening using PVC for an air loop. Unlikely things that have even a remote chance of happening will usually happen at least once or twice if they are done often enough. Out of curiosity, do you know what kinds of pressures you were running? And would the wall of a pipe usually fail, or would it be a connection at a joint?
  6. Eric R
    I've moved mostly over to the dark side (marine/reef tanks) over the last couple years. I still have two planted FW tanks setup, and some pond plants. My clownfish have been laying eggs, and I've purchased equipment to grow out phytoplankton and rotifers, and setup a couple breeding tubs to raise the clownfish larvae. I bought the linear piston air pump the co-op sells, as I got tired of the nano USB pumps failing after a year or less of use., and this way I have a long-term, quiet, reliable air supply. I'm on a reef keeping discord, and one of the members is a very experienced aquarist at a large public aquarium (he has some specific experience with designing equipment to transport fish collected at depth under pressure). He has expressed concern about what happens to PVC if it fails with a pressurized air system, and has suggested using ABS designed for pressurized air instead (he's also said that with the low pressure the linear piston pumps run at, it's not likely to ever be an issue). I think he's mostly thinking of commercial scale air installations. After researching alternatives, it really seems to me like PVC is the easiest and most affordable option, and I think any failure that would result in PVC creating shrapnel seems incredibly unlikely with how we setup systems. That being said, has anyone ever heard of a PVC air loop system catastrophically failing in some manner where the PVC did crack or create shrapnel? I am setting this up in a high school classroom, so I want to make doubly sure that it's quite safe.
  7. Eric R
    Any way to reduce the swelling? FWIW I've noticed a slight bulge in the other eye, but not nearly as extreme as on the one side. Also could have been caused by an injury I would guess if it bumped into something swimming around the tank.
  8. Eric R
    Hi all, One of my golden WCMM has had popeye for a few weeks now. I've tried the treatments I've found here from searches (add salt, add magnesium, treated with a full course of Maracyn) and the swelling hasn't gone down. Parameters are fine - 0 ammonia and nitrite, 10ppm nitrate. He (the fish) swims fine, but has gotten skinnier. Any suggestions on how to treat/relieve the swelling? Thanks!
  9. Eric R
    It's been mentioned a few times now, but if I were to try a brackish planted tank, I would aim for 1.015 SG and keep mangroves and several species of marine noncalcerous macrolagaes. They can look really amazing in an aquarium and would make an incredible brackish setup. I'd skip the chaetomorpha, but would include Caulerpa prolifera, and there are some reports that the red Gracilaria macroalgaes work in brackish and they look nice. Here's some info I found, though not a lot of well documented successful tanks. I need to acclimate my freshwater mangrove tank to full marine (1.026 SG) at some point, and it's going to have macroalgae, so I may try adding the macros around 1.013 or 1.015 SG and see how they do. Here's some more info I found: https://www.plantedtank.net/threads/brackish-macroalgae-image-heavy.360833/ https://www.tfhmagazine.com/articles/saltwater/a-closer-look-at-caulerpa-common-aquarium-species-and-their-care-full-article If you're looking where to purchase macroalgae, here are a few common sources: https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/plants-macroalgae https://www.algaebarn.com/shop/macroalgae/ https://www.live-plants.com/ Also, here's a picture of an incredible planted, fully marine macroalgae tank from Tigahboy for some inspiration (tank thread link)
  10. Eric R
    😮 I hadn't considered that it was for alligators! [Not surprising, they seem to be in every single ditch you drive past on the freeway] I had just assumed it was for mosquitos. Another reason not to live in Florida! There's an idea for the OP. Take the screen down, have a pet alligator (or 3). I don't think they eat algae though....
  11. Eric R
    You probably missed the OP's post, but the home is in SW Florida. No worry about freezing!
  12. Eric R
    My guess is that the metal framing around the yard is just screening and not glass. It's a somewhat common thing for suburban houses in Florida to have full screens around their back patios, including a screened in roof. I wouldn't know this except that I visited some relatives in Florida a few years ago, and all the houses in their subdivision had the same screened in back patios with pools.
  13. Eric R
    Yes then your tap water is providing kh to your tank.
  14. Eric R
    I'd call that a dkh of 1. KH can be measured in either parts per million of carbonate and bicarbonate in your water, or in degrees. 1 dkh equals 17.9 ppm. Of course, the real answer is that it's around that amount, but we don't need finer detail for aquarium purposes. As long as your kh and ph stay stable, I wouldn't worry about it. Just be sure to do regular water changes, which will help to replenish KH. Based on what you said about the pH of your other tanks, I'm assuming that the kh of your tap water reads higher?
  15. Eric R
    Do you want it to grow out of the pond too? Hornwort comes to mind, as does pennywort.
  16. Eric R
    Aquarium snails like nerite or mystery snails come in many patterns and colors, and are very attractive looking!
  17. Eric R
    Yeah, plants will be fine for a week or two without fertilizer, and if you order Easy Green from the Coop now, you should have it early next week.
  18. Eric R
    @HenryC I see on your profile that you live in Mexico. I imagine shipping live fish from the US would be expensive and a hassle. However, many species of sunfish occur naturally in Northeastern Mexico, so if you really want to keep these fish, you could try taking a trip and catching some for yourself, depending on what part of the country you live in. Here's an interesting website I found listing fish native to Mexico with a list that includes 5 species of sunfish: https://mexican-fish.com/fish-alphabetical-index-by-common-names/
  19. Eric R
    In addition to Sachs, you can try Jonahs Aquarium and Zimmerman's, both specialize in native fish. I'd email them directly with your inquiry to get the most recent stocking and pricing. They can be bought fairly inexpensive, and if you buy a group it makes shipping less per fish. Also where North American Native Fish Association (NANFA) is a great resource on all things native to North America. Here are a few things on sunfish that I found on their site: http://www.nanfa.org/fif/longear.shtml http://www.nanfa.org/articles/acgreen.shtml http://www.nanfa.org/ac/sunfish-bass-in-aquariums.pdf
  20. Eric R
    Did you check the pH reading using both the regular and the high range pH tests in the master test kit?
  21. Eric R
    In the aquarium hobby, we tend to use the terms alkalinity and KH (carbonate hardness) interchangeably, which, while not entirely accurate, for our purposes the two are close enough to be considered the same thing. Though both alkalinity and carbonate hardness can be expressed in either degrees of carbonate hardness (dKH) or as parts per million (ppm). Alkalinity is how well water resists acidification, and carbonate hardness is a measure of the amount of carbonate and bicarbonate in water. Carbonate and bicarbonate are what help water resist acidification, and the difference between measuring alkalinity and dKH is that they are calculated slightly differently.
  22. Eric R
    I personally wouldn't recommend any chemical additives to alter pH. A pH of 7 isn't a particularly important number for keeping aquariums (as compared to say 6.8 or 7.3), though 8 is on the high side for fish that prefer a lower pH. However, if you are keeping captive bred fish instead of wild caught, they should more readily be able to handle it.
  23. Eric R
    I think on the aqueon standard sized rimmed aquariums only the bottom is tempered and only for the larger ones.
  24. Eric R
    Aquabid has them available. I'd imagine they'd arrive fine and be microworms.
  25. Eric R
    Yes, it seems you can't get antibiotics without a prescription from a vet in Canada. Therefore, your treatment options are chemical, so things like ich-x (which contains malachite green and is used to treat parasites like ich) or methylene blue (which is used to treat fungual infections), herbal treatments (like supratect, which contains garlic but I'm not sure what else, since they don't identify the ingredients), salt (in a proper, low dose for freshwater disease treatment), or heat. So first we need to identify (as best we can) what we're trying to treat, then we can find the recommended treatment option(s) that are available to you. Sometimes you'll have to try a few different things if you're not sure what it is. Did you read the link @Mmiller2001 shared to see if it's possible you're dealing with epistylis? Can you tell if the symptoms match, especially the differences they describe between that and ich?
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